If you want to succeed in ultras, then I have one skill for you to focus your time and attention. It’s not downhill technical descents. Not eating while running. Nor is it dealing with adversity. Though all those will surely benefit you, there’s one other skill I would recommend you hone: Patience. So I’m not…
Failure Sucks
While my second attempt at the Mason-Dixon Trail FKT wasn’t a repeat of my first, it did rhyme. TL;DR – I gashed my shin on a rock after 70 miles and got picked up after 72 miles. It’s difficult to put into words how frustrating this ending was for me. I was in the middle…
If at first you don’t succeed. . .
. . . I guess I might as well try and run the Mason-Dixon Trail again. My first attempt back in May resulted in me quitting after 99 miles. Even though I wasn’t able to finish what I started, I had a blast out on the trail and was completely satisfied with my effort. The…
Serendipity
Typically about 95% of my runs start and end at my house. The other 5% are split between races, occasional long runs at Cheslen Preserve, or random vacation spots. It is very, very rare that I actually get in my car and drive for a run. This morning was one of those exceptions. My son…
You Do You
At races, you end up talking to a bunch of different people over the course of the day. Two recent conversations stand out. While they were very different in specifics, both had the same underlying theme. The first was at Eastern States where another runner was planning to drop at Hyner Run. He’d finished some…
2021 Labor Pain 12 Hour Race Report
Labor Pain is a 12 hour race put on by Pretzel City Sports at the Liederkranz German Singing & Sports Club in Reading, PA. It’s held the Sunday of Labor Day weekend on a “5 mile” trail course that is mildly technical by PA standards. The quotation marks there is because the course measured about…
Eastern States Stats and Stuff
There are a couple different types of people in this world. If you’re visually inclined, then you’ll want to read my race report which has 29 pictures of the race. That’s one way to describe this brutal course. For those like me who need to quantify things a bit more finely, the below charts will…
2021 Eastern States 100 Race Report
I guess the fourth time’s the charm as I had a simply incredible run this year. I was spotting rainbows and unicorns all over the course last weekend. I feel giving you the details of that run though may undersell the difficultly if this race. I’m sure the 49% of the field who dropped wouldn’t…
2021 Eastern States 100 Preview
Almost go time. This will be my fourth go at ES100. It’s been a long 2 year wait and I’m chomping at the bit to get back out there and run around Pine Creek. I’ll be interested to see how much of the course I remember. Even though I had already run it twice before,…
ES100 Training Blocks
I really wanted to add an adjective in the subject line like “effective” or “successful”, but I’m afraid of jinxing myself for next month’s race. Here’s a quick chart of some very high level stats summarizing the 100 days heading into each of my races. If you’re wondering why I picked 100 days and not…